Every once in a while, a new search engine comes along. Sometimes with incredible hype, a new search engine's marketing team bills it as a "Google Killer". Sometimes, a search engine is introduced to fulfill a specific search niche which isn't being adequately serviced by Google.
There are two reasons I'm always excited about the potential of new search engines:
- Better Results: While Google does a good job, search results can always be improved upon
- Another Advertising Platform: So far, search engines use ads as a source of revenue. New search engines offer a new potential advertising platform to generate client leads.
The search engine I recently took for a test drive is called FacteryLabs. This search engine was brought to my attention through a post over at Tech Crunch.
Simple, Factual Answers
According to the website,
"Factery has developed FactRank technology to mine real-time feeds and web content for the purpose of providing simple, short answers to user queries."
The Interface
The Factery Werks Interface
FacteryLabs.com features a search box over to the left and then numerous tabs off to the right. The tabs represent popular categories with popular searches within each tab. I suggest that you try it out to see if any of the tabs appeal to you. I wasn't necessarily enamored with the constant stream of feeds.
Taking it for a spin
For fun, I tried two queries. The first was "1967 Stanley Cup Champions". The results took a while to appear. The results featured a YouTube video of the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the Stanely Cup. There was little else. I would have expected a lot more information - perhaps their regular season record, their roster, scores of games in the finals, etc.
Compared to Google or Bing, these search results weren't nearly as good. Both provided a lot more relevant links, and Google included the same YouTube video (among others). FacteryLabs didn't exactly compare favorably in this test.
The Melting Point
For my next test, I thought I'd see how the search engine did with the melting point of iron. You can see my query below - when I pressed the "Get the Facts" button, I expected to get the melting point of iron (2800 degrees farenheit). Instead, I received a bunch of links to various sources - most of which weren't really relevant. None of the sources gave me a direct answer - at least not in degrees farenheit.
As a point of comparison, Google gives the answer immediately below the search query.
Results for the Melting Point of Iron Were Mediocre At Best
How Does this Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?
It is always good to know of all of the available advertising platforms that are available - especially online. It would also be extremely helpful to Denver small business advertisers if there was a bit more serious competition to Google's domination in search. It is likely that if substantial competition emerged that ad prices would go down.
I'm sad to report that from the limited testing that I conducted, FacteryLabs.com is not going to offer any serious competition to Google. It does have some interesting features, but seems to primarily rely heavily on feed aggregation and probably provides better results to current pop trends than it does facts.